Assessing Water Use Efficiency of Cotton Crop in Pakistan: Impact of Geo-climatic and Socio-economic Factors

Abstract

The problem of water stress and scarcity is likely to be worsening in the coming years ahead in Pakistan. Cotton crop is a major raw material for the manufacturing sector in Pakistan and the textile industry accounts overall 75 % of the manufacturing sector of the country. This study has tested the hypothesis, of whether a significant relationship exists between water use efficiency of cotton crop (WUEc) and geo-climatic and socio-economic factors or not. To check the water use efficiency of the cotton crop for each province separately, the formula of farm field water use efficiency is used to obtain the WUEc (Sindh and Punjab).  Following that to check the stationarity of univariate series Philips -Perron unit root test is applied. Subsequently, the Auto Regressive Distribution Lag (ARDL) Model is used to find the cointegration in the long run. The results of the study have disclosed that environmental factors have a significant relationship with the water use efficiency of the crop, and the misallocation of government resources at the national and provincial levels is the main reason for water usage inefficiencies in Pakistan. Therefore, at the policy-making level sustainable economic growth objectives need to be prioritized and planned investment must be directed towards the conservation of natural water resource management and improvement of human capital to disseminate smart water agriculture practices among medium and small farmers.